GlEANlJJ'GS ta BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



grasped his hand; and If ever I receivei a hearty 

 hand-shake it was from kind-hearted, whole-souled, 

 enthusiastic Prof. Cook. But others gathered 

 around, and they kept gathering around; not only 

 that evening, but the next day; and it was not until 

 friend C. and myself took the train Wednesdny 

 morning, and were on our way to Kalamazoo to at- 

 tend the convention, that we really had an oppor- 

 ttlnity for a good, long, friendly chat. What did we 

 talk about, do you ask? Oh! lots of things. About 



DOLI-AR QUEENS? 



Yes, we talked about dollar queens, and friend C. 

 was surprised to learn that we queen-breeders had 

 regular customers who bought queens by the dozen 

 year after year— the breeder, with his experience. 

 Implements, and extensive mannet of conducting 

 the business, being enabled to rear queens cheaper 

 than they. He also admitted, that there was prob- 

 ably no difference in quality between the so-called 

 dollar queens and the so-called tested ones: and, 

 with the care given the matter by most of the breed- 

 ers, he thought that the chances for dollar queens 

 to be Impurely mated were small indeed; yet, taken 

 as a whole, he thought that the cheap-queen traffic 

 discouraged breeders from putting forth their best 

 efforts toward an Improvement of their bees, and 

 cited the case of friend D. A. Jones as an illustra- 

 tion. He said, that friend Jones had spent large 

 sums of money in importing new strains, or varie- 

 ties of bees, but had not received an adequate re- 

 turn, because queens of the variety that he had im- 

 ported were soon oflfered, all over the country, at 

 one dollar each. Now, the cheap-queen traffic did 

 not prevent friend Jones from selling the first 

 queens that he imported and reared at a good round 

 price; but, of course, as soon as other breeders ob- 

 tained some of the queens to breed from, they could 

 sell queens of that variety as cheaply as they could 

 Italians. When new and good varieties of vege- 

 tables or grain, or imported breeds of stock or poul- 

 try, are first introduced they bring vefy large prices; 

 but as soon as widely disseminated, the prices fall ; 

 and with any thing that increases so rapidly as do 

 bees, the fall in prices soon comes. I told friend 

 Cook that I did not think the cheap-queen traffic 

 would hinder a bee-keeper from getting good prices 

 for queens, if he succeeded in developing a really 

 superior strain of bees; but, at the time of our con- 

 versation, I could give him no illustration; but 

 now, sibce attending the convention, I think I can 

 give him one. Many of us know that friend Heddon 

 has taken a new departure, and has demonstrated 

 to his own satisfaction that a cross between the 

 brown German bee and the dai-k leather-colored 

 Italian is superior to either variety. At the conven- 

 tion he said that, as soon as the good qualities of 

 this cross were made known, he y^s overwhelmed 

 with orders for queens; that customers would often 

 just roil up a five-dollar bill. Bend it along, and say: 

 " Send tile a queen, the best you can for the money. 

 I don't care for color nor for the cost, but 1 want a 

 qtiden tested for businese." Dr. Miller alsd said, in 

 private conversation, that he would willingly pay 

 $3.00 each for queens for his whole apiary, if he 

 could be sure that he would thereby get queens as 

 good as the best that he now has. Dnn't you see, 

 friend Cook, that the people are willing to pay high 

 prices for queens, if they can be assured that they 

 will receive the worth of their money, but that they 

 do object to paying $5.00, or even $2.00, for a queen 

 that, in all probability, is no better than one that can 



be bought for $1 00? Now, if I have made any mis- 

 statements in the above, or have given a different 

 shade of meaning than he intended to convey, I beg 

 friend Cook's pardon, and hope he will correct me. 



AT THE CONVENTION. 



How pleasant it was to meet, and grasp the hands, 

 and look in the faces, and listen to the words of wis- 

 dom that fell from the lips of those whose writings 

 I had read so many years, and whom I had so longed 

 to seel The discussions at the convention were up- 

 on practical subjects, and right to the point; but 

 none the less interesting and instructive was the 

 exchange of ideas when " congenial ppirits" gath- 

 ered morning, noon, and evening, around well-sup- 

 plied tables; collected here and there in nooks and 

 corners, and out-of-the-way places, in little knots of 

 two or three, or groups of half a dozen, or bed-fel- 

 lows lay awake and "talked" far into the "small 

 hourw." Then there were the chats among friends 

 at the railroad depots, while some of their numbers 

 were waiting for a belated train. Taken all In all 

 the convention at Kalamazoo was a very happy and 

 profitable affair. 



A VISIT TO LAPEER. 



On the way home I was fortunate in having for a 

 traveling companion Mr. K. L. Taylor, a bee-keeper 

 of Lapeer, Mich. About 7 o'clock in the evening, 

 when perhaps about 16 miles west of Flint, the train 

 began to run slower and slower and elo.Tcr, and 

 finally it stopped; then it went on a little further* 

 and stopped again. Upon looking out there could 

 be seen, a short distance ahead, the headlight of 

 another locomotive. We soon learned that there 

 was a freight train ahead, a part of which was off 

 the track, and four long hours dragged themselves 

 along before every thing was righted and we moved 

 on. As it was so late, friend Taylor thought that I 

 had bettergo home with him, and, as Jt could come 

 back to Flint the next day, and reach home just as 

 soon as though I did not go, 1 accepted his invita- 

 tion. I am very glad that I went with him. Had I 

 known that there was so progressive a bee-keeper 

 living within 20 miles of myself, I should — well, I 

 micf?it have made a nuisance of myself by visiting 

 him too often. Friend T. has an Adams' horse-pow* 

 er (by the way, these horse-powers are manufactured 

 in Kalamazoo, Mich), which he sets Up upon his 

 barn floor and runs a buzz-saw with which he cuts 

 up stuff for hives. He has a Given press for mak- 

 ing fdn., and as I had never seen a machine of any 

 kind for making fdn., I felt that the sight of that 

 alone had paid me for my trip to Lapeer. Friend 

 T.'s method of measuring and cutting off the wire 

 for wiring frames is different from any thing I have 

 seen described. He winds the wire lengthwise 

 around a strip of board 4 or 5 inches wide, and of 

 such a length that, when it passes over one end of 

 It, the pieces are just the right length for wiring 

 a frame. In order to be certain that I am under- 

 stood, let me say, that, when the board Is wound 

 with wire, it might be compared to one of the little 

 boards from which rtibber cord is retailed in stores. 

 Before cutting the wire at one end of the board, 

 friend T. wraps a piece of paper around the board, 

 near the end upon which the wire is to be cut, then 

 winds a string around outside of the paper, draws it 

 uptignt, and ties it securely; thus, after the wire 

 Is cut, It remains upon the board, and one piece at a 

 time can be drawn out when wanted. A large share, 

 if not the whole, of friend T.'s bees are in an apart- 



